May 12, 2014 5:15 PM

Hi I opened grapes and found this spider along with a sac that was like tissue paper quite tough with small white eggs in it could it be a South African sac spider as indeed my grapes were from South Africa and there was only 3 eggs left can baby sac spiders survive in this countries as mum was still alive and kicking I had to kill her in sheer panic I'm worried the little ones have hatched and escaped into my house please help me not sure if you can identifi from picture but she had a black mouth

Hi Zoe - well it's a dead spider so no need for exterminators. From what I can see it looks like one of the Cheiracanthium species, commonly known as 'Sac spiders'. The silken object is its sack that it uses as a retreat during the day, hunting at night. They are reasonably common in grapes imported from South America, Israel and South America. The bite isn't necessarily pleasant, but would be a very rare occurrence. Don't be overly concerned but freeze the contents if you would like reassurance. It would be extraordinarily unlikely for there to have been any others.

Hi I'm aware it's a dead spider it's the babies that have indeed hatched as there was only 3 eggs left in the sac and the reason it's dead is because it was under my bananas not with the grapes and came running at me forts instinct was to kill it I'm indeed a spider saver I just panicked I always pick spiders up and put them outside this one was different thanks for the response

If you didn't see any hatchlings I wouldn't worry about things. In the event that there were a few spiderlings these die very quickly in their natural environment with almost 100% mortality. Put them in an unnatural environment without access to the right kind of prey found in the right environment and that increases probably 100 fold. They are doomed.